General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

--Mark Henry is getting as much out of Jericho/Punk as Jericho and Punk are. Henry looked completely badass against Punk the past few weeks and gets something to do with Punk taking the DQ this week. I'd never have guessed in a million years that Henry and Punk would have good ring chemistry together.

Click to expand...

You know, Mark Henry often impresses me with his ability to work with almost anyone and make them look good. He had a great chemistry with Matt Hardy and Christian back in ECWWE, and his recent feud with Big Show wasn't the scheduled trip to the bathroom that I would have expected.

Okay. YES is the new WHAT?!!! Raw was okay. The London crowd was hot tonight, even more so than for the Impact Wrestling show they had a couple months ago I think. Extreme Rules is setting up to be interesting with a Punk/JeriTroll rematch for the title, I guess Punk is going to break Mike's current longest WWE Championship reign with a win, Lesnar is gonna destroy Cena.

Well, at least that's a step in the right direction. I just hope it doesn't linger for a decade, so long that you'd have to check YouTube or some other website just to remember exactly what (AAHH! I said the word!) got "YES!" all started in the first place.

The WWE can and has done worse. At least they haven't saddled a past-his-prime pro wrestling icon with a Joker gimmick.

It is interesting that YES has gotten over the way it has, pretty quickly. I think Sheamus' victory has a ton to do with this though lol. IIRC when Austin first started using What it was pretty awkward and fan were trying to figure out what the fuck he was trying to do. I think it wasn't until he became a face again that it became the phenom it was and is.

IIRC when Austin first started using What it was pretty awkward and fan were trying to figure out what the fuck he was trying to do. I think it wasn't until he became a face again that it became the phenom it was and is.

Click to expand...

That sounds right. What sucks about it is how many promos are doomed to fail because their momentum is broken by the constant chants. It's fine for the occasional heel promo or when a promo is already bombing or not making any sense.... Hmm, could've been useful during the days of the Ultimate Warrior (much as I was a mark back then). Speaking of phenoms, the "WHAT?!" chants have allowed the Undertaker to be rather creative with his responses over the years. Vince McMahon, too. Ultimately, I think the only person who can truly do "WHAT?!" any justice is the person who started the craze, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Maybe CM Punk, but even then just to throw it back at Austin as he has before on at least one occasion.

Part of the charm of the chant for me personally (and I fully acknowledge the frustrating and annoying aspect of it for the superstars) is that fan reaction to the promos. If the promo sucks, they've gotten into it! If the promo is awesome they get into it...and the best thing about is that the speaker will if he or she is aware of what is going on will sometimes adjust to it. I think Truth has reacted to WHAT the best recent. "Don't WHAT Me!!!" I can remember Vince screaming at the crowd in a few promos, telling the crowd to "Don't say it!" "SHUT UP!!!!" LOL. It's that fun factor that makes it awesome to me...but yeah the overuse can get frustrating.

I always wondered if Raven poured actual alcohol on Punk during that one fantastic match they had ages and ages ago.

Click to expand...

I read somewhere that it wasn't. I imagine the same applies here. It's not difficult to fake it being alcohol, and I doubt Punk would agree to it if they tried to push it on him.

Click to expand...

Oh, I know it's easy. I used iced tea and water for booze when I was doing "The Odd Couple" a couple of years ago. The highlight of which had to be when I drank straight from the bottle (it was very hot), and a number of people in the audience gasped. I guess they thought it was real whiskey.

We just used water for whiskey when I was in "I Hate Hamlet" in highschool. It helped that the bottle was opaque.

I really enjoyed Bryan vs. Kofi. Excellent pacing, good psychology, and great chemistry. Why Kofi has yet to get a World Title win under his belt, I'll never know. Particularlly when Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler both have. Not to take anything away from either of them.

Raw has been actually decent since post 28. I expect it will be over the next month, although i'm not looking forward to the 3 Hour Raw next week. They're always over hyped and nothing happens. The draft is set for this month as well as I mentioned earlier. Smackdown needs a big time shake up again, Orton has done nothing for the show since being drafted last year.

As for the bottle...I remember reading somewhere questioning if the bottle looked cracked already, but wouldn't be surprised if it was real alcohol.

Alberto Del Rio has been officially traded to Smackdown, which is about time given that he can fill the top heel spot on Smackdown when DB turns face (due to the YES! mania) or gets drafted to Raw.

Edge's contract is expiring at the end of the month and WWE is apparently frantically trying to get him to re-sign. This is interesting, considering that Edge cannot wrestle anymore (and has probably been advised not to engage in bump taking either). It seems that WWE would much rather keep him handcuffed than sign him to a Legend's deal and allow him to work elsewhere without permission from them.

I expected Del Rio to be drafted to Smackdown. They need him more than Raw does at this point. I'd love if Miz got drafted as well...that might be what he needs, but I doubt it.

Not surprising that they'd want to retain Edge to some kind of contracts to keep his likeness rights or merchandising rights or whatever.

I know we've touched a bit upon WWE's social media promotion and it's continued pushing of it, another thing that has really irritated me is that they continuously update each Superstars facebook page with the same pointless recap. It is very annoying lol.

I think WWE wants to re-sign to a Steve Austin style contract, although Austin's contract is very flexible because of his success in outside endeavours and WWE relishes the prospect of gaining mainstream attention through Austin's pursuits.

This is one of these things that nearly destroyed WWE's relationship with The Rock in 03/04 - they wanted to keep him under contract but he declined to re-sign in order to go it alone in Hollywood. I suppose the last year's worth of big money Rock appearances, angles and matches has provided WWE with adequate compensation.

See, I think Edge could do really well in TV and movies, because he's got natural charisma and comes across as a likeable person. He's not stranger to acting, having made appearances in various TV shows and movies in the last few years.

Instead of signing Edge to a Legends contract, they could give him a "special" contract like Shawn Michaels has. Shawn himself used the term to describe the type of contract he is under and confirmed it isn't a superstars or legends contract. I suspect that the Rock signed a similar type deal when he came back last year.

Chris Jericho reveals that his current run will conclude sometime prior to Summer Slam (which I believe some of us have speculated about in the thread) as he will be touring with Fozzy afterwards. I guess this means that Punk will retain at Extreme Rules LOL.

I just noticed that Brock has been wearing black and white Also the ending might have been anti-climatic but that was on purpose to build up the tension and evoke emotion from the crowd (which it did). This is already ten times better than Rock/Cena IMHO.

Apparently the Bella Twins are leaving the WWE after their contracts expire April 30. This is a little ironic since it was reported just a few months ago that the pair were Vince's favourite Divas and would get a fairly large push. I don't know the status since Niki of course just won the DIVAS Title. Also update on Beth's injury...

It's been said that the only reason Nikki Bella won the Diva's Championship was because WWE doesn't want Kharma to defeat Beth Phoenix for it and presumably ruin the payoff that will come from having a feud between the two with Kharma as the dominant champion and Phoenix as the face looking to pull off an upset, or something like that. In any case, it's pretty insulting to Nikki to blatantly portray her as a transitional champion if these rumours are true.

I'm very happy with how Brock Lesnar's character is coming across. I did say when news first broke of his return that I thought it would be wrong to portray him as a face from the onset and this opinion still stands. Lesnar is one of those perfomers that people loathe, but love at the same time because his skill as an athlete is phenomenal and he has a wide understanding of in-ring psychology. Sure, he's no CM Punk on the mic, but this doesn't necessarily factor into his character and he provokes an intense reaction by just being arrogant.

Lesnar's a guy that has been very successful at nearly everything that he's done. He may not have made it into the NFL, but he still made it to the trials and although I'm no expert on American Football, I'm sure that's a pretty big achievement in itself. His character's arrogance is justified, because he's actually every bit as good as he says.